Talib Kweli Isn’t Feeling Ben Carson’s New Hip Hop Ad
It was recently announced that presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson would run a hip hop political advertisement about his plans for America if he were to win the White House. Its aim was to garner more support from the African-American community, which largely doesn’t support him according to polls. The ad, “Aspiring Mogul,” relays a few beliefs of Dr. Carson’s, but unfortunately doesn’t feature the candidate himself rapping on it.
While everyone was disappointed we didn’t get to hear Benny Bars spit a fresh 16, Talib Kweli heard the ad and disapproved of it for a different reason. Recently speaking with The Washington Post, Kweli explained why he wasn’t amused by Dr. Carson’s message and calls a lot of what was said in the ad inaccurate, including what makes America great.
“America absolutely became great because it was flooded with people who believed in the value of hard work,” he relayed when asked about the advertisement. “They were called slaves, and they weren't asked permission.”
Kweli also offered his advice for Dr. Carson: end the ad gimmicks and support policies aimed to address poverty and systemic racism.
“The most effective way for Ben Carson to reach out to young Black voters is to actually care about other Black people, which Ben Carson has proven to be incapable of,” he said. “When you say things like ‘Obamacare is the worst thing that's happened to America since slavery’ and describe the youth-driven Black Lives Matter as ‘sickening’ and accuse them of ‘bullying’ people, who cares about your rap ad? ... ‘Carson’ doesn't even really rhyme with ‘awesome.’”
Kweli, who is currently touring in Europe, hasn’t been shy about his political leanings in the past. In August 2014, he threatened to quit an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon over how the network was covering the Ferguson protests.
As of last month, Kweli, speaking with CNN about the presidential race, said he isn’t endorsing any candidate, at least not yet.
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Watch: 106 & Rewind! Talib Kweli in the Backroom in the video below.
(Photo: Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
